Good morning to everybody! Or perhaps I should say Good Evening your time. This is Willi Prittie reporting from Mount Everest Base Camp. We've awakened here on this third day of May at about 2:45 in the morning to a beautiful, calm, star studded sky. I like the way our weather forecasts are being reported. It is in fact very calm. The South Col reports: calm, no wind. Camp II reports: calm, no wind. So our decision has been to go and begin on our acclimatization round out as far as sleeping at Camp III.
Anticipation is in the air. We are finally moving and heading up the mountain. It's been a night of a great deal of ice movement. There has been about three very large ice avalanches off of Lo La Pass, two very large ice avalanches off the pass between Kumorn and Wintrin, four ice collapses and avalanches off of Nuptse, and there have been four audible collapses in the Khumbu Icefall. So, we've been pretty much surrounded by quadraphonic icefall throughout the course of the night. This is accompanied by a lot of snaps and pops and groans throughout the glacier here where our camp is as well. It's indicative of a lot of things moving and a lot of activity. Last couple of hours things seem to have quieted down significantly. So we'll see what the team finds: whether or not the route is actually going to be viable today or if there are going to be some changes and delays in it. That's always something that is to be expected going through the Khumbu Icefall.
When I say 'team,' I should say, the rest of the people. Unfortunately there seems to be a strep throat epidemic running through Base Camp here. Yours truly seems to be the latest recipient of it. So, hopefully some high doses of Amoxicillin will get me back on my feet within 24 hours and I'll actually be able to go up and join the rest of the team.
At this point, that's all the news from Everest Base Camp. As I say, anticipation is running high. Everyone is psyched to be moving and psyched to be heading up to be spending the night within three days at Camp III at over 7,000 meters or 23,000 feet. And of course, we'll keep you all posted!
— Willi Prittie, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent